Our Cases
We have supported 850 individuals to challenge Prevent to date, and each of our cases is unique. The support we provide you is based on our diverse cases experience, and tailored for your needs and context.
Each year thousands of people are referred to Prevent, the vast majority of whom are under 15 years of age.
Prevent Watch provides a FREE help line and support services for people who have experienced such referrals or have been impacted by Prevent in some way.
WE HAVE SUPPORTED NEARLY
850
PEOPLE TO DATE
As well as individuals and families, this includes those who know or sense they have been threatened with Prevent, or people who work in the public services and feel that Prevent is damaging and unworkable.
Our help line and support are strictly confidential. However, some of our clients want to tell their stories to the public, believing that in doing so, they will help others. These narratives which appear on this page are drawn from interviews with the clients and their case files.
They form part of our media advocacy and research. Any publication or interaction with the media is only done with a client’s wholehearted consent, and they are able to check their stories, and to change their mind at any time.
Giving a voice to parents of Muslim children
“We got very distressed and upset. Imagine having your 10-year-old son being the subject of a decision by counter terrorism with no opportunity to explain or challenge the referral and the situation? This was having a harmful impact on our son, [yet] we were left completely in the dark.”
Please visit our Prevent in Education page.
Supporting employees post-Prevent training
“I was particularly concerned [when the Prevent trainer] put up pictures of images and symbols we should look out for … symbols of Black Lives Matter and Palestine Solidarity Campaign. We were told that we should take photos if we saw these symbols and send them to Prevent, that we were their ‘eyes and the ears’.”
Uncomfortable during a Prevent training? Call our Free Helpline.
Case Videos
The scripts below are not necessarily in our clients’ own voices, but each client has approved their scripts before we released them.
In cases where audio has been taken secretly – for example, during a Prevent interview – we have carefully weighed the public interest and the safety of our client, before releasing them.
For interviews or more information regarding these cases, please contact us.
Our Cases in the News
These are a selection of published stories in which our Prevent cases have featured or been used as a resource, with client consent.
Our Prevent Cases Library
These are the records of all our Prevent cases that have agreed to be public.
To find out more or arrange case interviews, please contact us.
Increasing numbers of autistic children
“I found out that my son had been referred to Prevent .. after a ‘no names conversation’ … I emailed them straight back, and said I did not consent to the referral. I told them that what had happened was because David had felt cornered and had blown up, and this could be expected with someone with autism.”
Read more in ‘My autistic son was referred to Prevent after resisting LGTBQ+ programme’ – Christian mum speaks.
Please visit our Prevent in Health page.
Behind the Prevent Statistics
Every year the Home Office releases statistics on Prevent. These numbers mask the deeply harmful impact of Prevent on the over 95% of cases that are not taken any further.
These articles and reports evidence the problems with statistical representation of Prevent:
The People’s Review of Prevent
Lies, Damned Lies and Prevent Statistics 2024
2023 Statistics Should Direct us to the ‘Alternative’